As is the case with the start of every new generation, the upcoming eight generation has been met with the resurgence of the “console wars”, with gamers filling online forums with bickering over which hardware is superior for gaming. With the Wii U essentially out of the race by default, the race this time around has been between Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PS4. The consoles feature similar hardware, but major differences such as Sony’s choice of the faster DDR5 RAM over DDR3 and Microsoft’s unusual eSRAM-based system architecture have led many to speculate that the PS4 will have an advantage in the coming generation. Today, an increasingly credible looking rumor circulating on Neogaf seems to confirm this; if the rumor is confirmed, gamers can expect Call of Duty: Ghosts to run at just 720p on the Xbox One due to limitations in the system’s hardware. The title is expected to run at 1080p on PS4.

The speculation started with a Neogaf thread about Infinity Ward’s decision to use PS4 footage of Ghosts in videos posted on IGN, a peculiarity considering the close ties between the Call of Duty series and Microsoft. Later in the thread, Neogaf user famousmortimer posted that he was looking for a second source to confirm a rumor about Call of Duty: Ghosts before posting it on the site. Several more posts are exchanged between users, before a second person steps in with a commentsuggesting that Infinity Ward chose to feature PS4 gameplay footage because the Xbox One version will run at 720p and the 1080p PS4 version of the title looks significantly better.

After contacting famousmortimer (seemingly to verify his sources), a forum moderator posted something suggestive of a confirmation:

…oboy. **** it, I’m out. See y’all later. It’s been real.

*closes fallout shelter door, locks it firmly*

If the rumors are credible, and they appear moreso with each new page of posts, then it seems that limitations with the Xbox One’s architecture and development kit have forced Infinity Ward to reduce the platform’s version of Call of Duty: Ghosts to 720p. Running the game at 1080p allegedly results in operating system and UI instability. Additionally, an anecdotal account from E3 reports that while the PS4 port of the title took three weeks to develop and ran at 90 FPS unoptimized, the Xbox One version took four months to achieve just 15 FPS due to the hurdle posed by the eSRAM architecture.

Now a rumor on top of a rumor may not sound like much, especially in the gaming industry where things are subject to rapid and unannounced changes, but the NeoGaf community has never been one to take kindly to unfounded claims; the fact that the thread has been allowed to amass comments and attention for dozens of pages is in itself a near-confirmation. At this point, it seems that unless there have been some serious upgrades to the Xbox API, developers may struggle to achieve performance comparable to the PS4 in many multiplatform games.

Until now, 1080p resolution was expected to be pretty much standard for next generation games. The fact that developers are already having trouble reaching that target with a cross-generational title on the Xbox One doesn’t seem to bode well for future multiplatform comparisons.

I wonder how good the game will look on one of those 4K Ultra HD TVs. It's been said that 1080p is a "normal" resolution for PS4. That's good. That means it's not the highest resolution.That means there has to be something higher than 1080p on the PS4. 4K is definitely higher that 1080. Of course, they have to START programming and coding the games 4K in order to find out

holy crap image what would happen if this becomes true about the XBOX one is running at 720p or 900p this could turn into a complete flame war with the PS user finally get their own back on the XBOX community for years of crap about the prices of the PS3 etc

This is not a rumour, it has already been confirmed that Xbone games will have to go full retard to even come close to running on the PS4. Several Devs have already commented how 'backward' the Xbone games are compared to finished games on there PS4 Dev Modules. Will try and find the official link.

Not hating, just surprised when they are supposed to have similar specs (except for bandwith of course.)

I know the PS4 version of ghost was confirmed today at the Brazil game show that it runs at 1080p, but how have you found out that the XBOX one version of ghost will run at 720p? I can't find anything on it

I know Ryse will run at 900p the only real 1080p game on the XBOX one is Forza 5

Microsoft are trying to spin and blame 3rd party, they are hoping this will just blow over, so it will not impact sales.

They are just annoying people doing this, in 10 days or less everyone will know one way or another The problem is Ghosts is like the big multi platform one that every other game will be judged by , "if" it is 720 on the xb1 it will severely damage xb1 sales and thats what ms knows.

I really dont understand why they don't put the matter to bed now the silence and penello skirting around the issue is just making matters worse for consumers.

It just really annoys me (and this isnt directed to anyone here) that people are making this a dev thing when its a platform thing